Councillors throw their weight behind under-threat Muirhead care home

RESIDENTS of a closure-threatened care home met with council officials recently to thrash-out their future.

Cash-strapped North Lanarkshire Council have identified £105.7million in cuts, from which they will have to select £73.3million in savings in mid-December.

One of the suggested cuts is to close Chilterns Care Home, in Muirhead. The proposal has prompting anger from residents, their families and local councillors Frances McGlinchey and Willie Hogg - who have pledged to fight to keep the facility open.

Kim Moncur, whose 89-year-old aunt lives in Chilterns, said: “It was very busy but nothing different was really said.

“The man’s opening gambit was that the council have no legal obligation to provide residential services, which didn’t exactly fill anybody with confidence.

“The consultation period has now closed, although I know plenty of people who never even got one of the consultation leaflets.

“It’s now just a waiting game until the decision is made in mid-December.”

But Strathkelvin councillor Willie Hogg said that he would be “shocked” if the home was closed - telling the meeting that he would consider standing down as a councillor if the decision went against Chilterns.

He told the Herald: “The council’s policy dating back four years is to invest in Chilterns to provide a combination of respite and residential care. It’s also used by a mental health organisation and to close it would simply be unacceptable to me.

“As far as I’m concerned, with investment, it should be a tremendous asset to the community. If it was closed it would leave North Lanarkshire with practically no residential care homes.

“I would have no hesitation in keeping the place open and am confident that the council’s Labour group would agree.”

A council spokesman said: “A wide-ranging consultation with all our residents has been approved. Until this has been completed and the responses analysed, we cannot discuss individual savings options.”